Why the media are important

In these days of intense public scrutiny of politics and politicians, it is folly for those who hold political office or aspire to it to try to browbeat the media into subservience or silence. It is a lesson which is as true for Donald Trump and his abrasive administration in Washington as it is for political leaders elsewhere. A judge has just had the press pass of CNN's White House correspondent restored after the President ordered that it be revoked.

The White House action was bizarre and just how bizarre it was came through the unity demonstrated by the media, among which were networks long supportive of Trump, in defence of the CNN reporter. In a remarkable show of integrity, all these media organizations and people made it clear that no restrictions could be placed on any journalist working in a democratic country like the United States.

We might go a little further and suggest that the question of media freedom is equally important in countries where democracy or suppression of dissent remains an ugly norm. We have Myanmar to look to, for it is there that in recent months two young journalists were tried on charges of treason and endangering national security and sentenced to long jail terms.

The 'fault' of the journalists was to investigate the role of the country's security forces in the burning down of Rohingya homes and the murder of some Rohingyas with the connivance of the security forces. Indeed, the entire trial process was a façade and was clearly revealed to have been a set-up by the regime. The world needs to speak up louder for these journalists in the same way that it needs to speak up for journalists who have been locked away in prison in Egypt and Turkey.

Even as we focus on the condition of journalism around the world, we cannot remain impervious to the need for a preservation of media freedom here at home in Bangladesh. The history of journalists' struggle for freedom of expression has been long in our circumstances. The focal point of this struggle has been the need for the media to uphold the truth in the larger interest of the country.

As we are already into an election season, it should be the responsibility of every journalist to report with objectivity and accuracy on the events and incidents they see unfolding before them.

At the same time, it ought to be the responsibility of both the government and the political opposition to ensure that journalists are not harassed in the performance of their responsibilities. At the end of the day, in these post-modern times, it is the media which keep hopes aglow, for people everywhere.